Former Jewish school teacher pleads guilty to child pornography

(JTA) — An ex-teacher at a Jewish elementary school in New Jersey pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography and child exploitation.

Evan Zauder, 27, who worked as a sixth-grade teacher at the Modern Orthodox school Yeshivat Noam in Paramus, pleaded guilty to the charges in a Manhattan federal court on Jan. 22. He could face up to 27 years in prison, according to the New York Daily News.

Zauder was arrested last May after the FBI raided his Manhattan apartment and discovered on his computer hundreds of images and videos of boys engaged in sex acts. He has been held in jail since his arrest.

He also was charged with having an affair in 2011 with a 14-year-old male he met on the Internet. The teen was not a student at Yeshivat Noam.

Zauder had been a rabbinical student at Yeshiva University and had served as the head counselor of a youth group summer trip to Israel.
 

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